Read Online The Stone Lions by Gwen Dandridge - Free Book Online

up. These are made with pistachios and Grenadian
honey. I thought you might enjoy some.”
    In the quiet that followed, Tahirah took a
sip of tea. “I hope that we might become friends.” The smaller girl
looked up hopefully, then focused once more on the floor. Ara was
obviously having none of it. Tahirah watched them through lowered
lashes. Neither of the girls touched the teacups.
    She thought about the previous evening when
she had felt evil magic closing in on Ara and had used her power to
urge her away. The taint had left Tahirah weak. Sleep had eluded
her. She wished her inner vision had been clearer. She needed this
girl to confide in her, but how could she gain her trust? Here was
a challenge almost as difficult as proving a new theorem. She took
a deep breath and concentrated on the problem. Her magic was of
learning. This was just another mathematics problem. Though, she
thought with an inward sigh, perhaps a tangled one.
    “Why did you have us brought here?” Ara
finally demanded, her arm wrapped around her cousin’s shoulder.
    “To have tea and baklava with me. Is that so
unreasonable?” Tahirah replied, confused by the girl’s anger.

    Ara looked around the room. There were no
mirrors, broken or not. She couldn’t figure out if the
mathemagician was good or evil. She sneaked a look at her—and was
startled by the warmth of violet eyes. Was Tahirah the one who had
warned her away in the mirrored room? She again glanced at the
mathemagician, who sat as if waiting for her answer. Well, thought
Ara, she is going to wait for a long time.
    She frowned and stared at the wall behind
Tahirah. Another vertical reflection symmetry—that would be the
third. But no, it wasn’t right. One tile in the band was twisted,
so it wasn’t a perfect reflection. As she watched, the tile wiggled
and turned before her startled eyes. Now it matched the rest. What was that? She stared again, not sure
that she had truly seen it move.
    A noise came from Layla’s embroidery basket,
then right after, another noise far away, almost like a roar. The
basket bounced. Layla dropped it and backed away. Ara grabbed it,
hugging it to herself. Tahirah looked at it in surprise.
    “Arrrrrrr…Arrrrrra...” came from the
basket.
    Its lid thumped up and down. They all stared.
“What have you done, child?” Tahirah asked Ara.
    “I...I can’t tell you,” she stammered. The
racket from the basket was getting louder.
    “As Allah is good, I think you truly must
tell me. Daughter of the harem, something is very wrong here,”
exclaimed Tahirah. Something is very wrong indeed, she thought as
she watched the basket’s lid open and a green snake, twice as long
as Layla’s arm and half as thick as her wrist, slithered out. Layla
backed up against the wall and covered her eyes with her hands.
    “Oh, no,” cried Ara. “Where’s Suleiman?
Please, as Allah is merciful, let him not have been eaten by a
snake.” Ara riffled madly through the basket. Embroidery scattered
everywhere.
    The snake raised its head and spoke.
“Arrrrra, I promisssssed.”
    “A transformation,” whispered Tahirah in a
shocked voice and watched the snake wind its way across the floor.
“Is that Suleiman?"
    “No, Suleiman is a lizard,” Ara wailed. “Not
a snake. He must have been eaten.”
    “I think not,” Tahirah said carefully.
“Truly, that is your servant before us in snake form. And he calls
you. Tell me, what did Suleiman promise?”
    “Nothing,” Ara said, sniffling. Then she
remembered. “Well, just a silly thing about mathematics. But what
happened to the lizard? Why did he change?” She saw her cousin
shrinking into the wall. “Layla’s afraid of snakes.”
    Layla, pressed up against the wall, peered
out from between her fingers.
    Reaching out her hand, Tahirah said, “I think
we are all going to have to be very brave here, Layla. Come and sit
next to me. Suleiman has been bespelled, and this will take all our
efforts to resolve.”
    “I